Five carols ripe for revival

Each Christmas, we sing the same old favourites, but these represent a small
fraction of the carols that have been written, many of which display an
astonishing poetic imagination. Here are five forgotten ones that deserve to
be sung.

Wassailing, circa 1800: The image shows the Christmas custom of wassailing, drinking, revelling and singing carols from house to house Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Christmas carols are a neglected treasure. We sing only a fraction of the carols that have survived, which doesn’t just deprive us of a good sing. It makes the few we do know hard to understand. TakeThe Holly and The Ivy. “Of all the trees that are in the wood, the holly bears the crown,” the first verse runs. It’s a baffling sentiment to us, but in medieval times there was a whole genre of amorous courtly carols, many of them comparing the prickly male holly with the tender female ivy.

Once you start to explore carols, their meanings and amazing vareity become clear. There are high-art carols, folk-carols, processional carols, carols for dancing. There’s a definite pagan flavour to many of them, and an astonishing poetic imagination.

Even when the subject is Christian, carols often embroider the Biblical story with fanciful additions, or retell it from an unusual point of view. One medieval carol adds some colourful episodes to the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt. A lion comes to worship at the Christ-child’s feet, and a passing farmer realises he’s come face-to-face with a miracle.

The medieval form of carol may have died by the 17th century, but the tradition of Christmas songs has always bubbled up in new forms. There was a wonderful tradition of lusty broadside carols, especially during the Restoration. Later came the period of sweetly earnest Victorian carols, which are often scorned, but include some beauties. In all there must be thousands of Christmas carols and songs, and many of them are a rattling good sing. Here are five that are ripe for revival:

A typically hearty medieval folk-carol. This version of it was noted down in 1864 in the village of Over in Gloucestershire. It celebrates the favourite Christmas tipple known as Wassail or “lambs-wool”, made from ale, nutmeg, sugar, toast, and roasted crabs or apples.

Wassail! Wassail! all over the town,

Our toast it is white, our ale it is brown:

Our bowl it is made of a maplin tree

We be good fellows all; I drink to thee.

After toasting the local cows and horses, the last verse gets to the point:

Be here any maids? I suppose here be some;

Sure they will not let young men stand on the cold stone!

Sing hey O, maids! come trole back the pin,

And the fairest maid in the house let us all in.

THE CHERRY TREE CAROL

This beautiful carol mingles a pagan belief in the fructifying properties of cherries with a story from the apocryphal Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. On the flight into Egypt Mary wants some dates, but her elderly husband can’t reach them (or won’t, according to the carol, because he’s in a jealous sulk about her pregnancy). Then something miraculous happens:

Then up speaks the little Child

In his own mother’s womb:

Bow down, you sweet cherry tree,

And give my mother some.

COME MY ROARING RANTING BOYS

During the Commonwealth period Christmas was frowned on. You could actually be arrested for celebrating it. Not surprisingly, the Restoration prompted a flood of new Christmas songs, which praise the new King as much as Christmas. Here’s one of them:

Come, come my roaring ranting boys

let’s never be cast down

we’ll never mind the female toys

but loyal be to the Crown

we’ll never break our hearts with care

nor be cast down with fear.

Our bellies then let us prepare

to drink some Christmas Beer

THE BITTER WITHY

This mysterious carol was recorded by Cecil Sharp at the work-house in Ross-on-Wye in 1912. It imagines Christ as a boy who astonishes his playmate with his miraculous powers. They try to follow him over the sea across his rainbow bridge, and drown. Mary responds as any mother would. “Withy”, by the way, means willow.

So Mary mild fetched home her child

And laid Him across her knee

With a handful of green withy twigs

She gave Him slashes three.

O withy! O withy ! O bitter withy

Thou hast caused Me to smart

And the withy shall be the very first tree

That shall perish at the heart!

WHAT CHILD IS THIS?

One difficulty in reviving old carols is that we have to relearn the tune. In this case that’s not a problem, as it’s sung to Greensleeves. The Victorians were keen to revive old English tunes by providing them with suitably edifying Christian words. This is a fine example.